The Ascension of the Ani'gaus
by Konner N7
Summary: (Collaboration between Nayfan N7 and Konner N7) Commander Shepard and Tali'Zorah have defeated the Reaper's and have built a house on Rannoch, everything seemed quite and peaceful on the Quarian homeworld, but the Ani'gaus do vis Quarian is posing a substantial threat to the peace between the Geth and their Quarian creators.
1. Ch 1: The N7 and the Engineer

**Chapter 1: Peace at last**

* * *

**November 10th 2189**  
**Rannoch, Rayya District**  
**Three years after the Reaper Invasion**  
**2130 hours**

Shepard sat down next to Tali, his faithful girlfriend; Tali sighed and laid down across Shepard's lap, spread out across their new couch, facing the new television in their new house.

"Shep, I love this place, where did learn to build like this?" Tali asked, looking into Shepard's eyes, his beautiful bluish-greenish eyes.

"I called in a few favours from Anderson, seems he is more than willing to help us." Shepard said, remembering Anderson's dark coloured face, dressed up in his uniform, hands clasped behind his back.

"He's a good man. We ought to invite him round some time for dinner."

"Maybe" Tali changed the channel with her glowing omni-tool, an all-round remote for every electronic item. The channel changed to the news.

"A second attack on Geth living-quarters has been reported, people are claiming this violent attack to be the work of the Ani'gaus do vis Quarian." The news reporter commented over a video of a military style building, riddled with mass accelerator rounds and scorch marks, likely to be caused by incendiary grenades.  
Shep looked confused at the mention of this "Ani'gaus do vis Quarian" looking down at Tali, he asked "Who are the 'Ani'gaus do vis Quarian?' Their obviously some sort of extremist group, but it doesn't translate."

Tali looked back up at Shepard."They are a political extremist group dedicated to the destruction of all Geth; they believe that the Geth must pay for the Mourning War. That's as much as much as anybody knows anyway."

"Ahh"Tali playfully smacks him in the chest.

"Shut up, you sound like a Vorcha with a sore throat."

"Well, I have been hungry for flesh recently." Shepard smiled as he kissed Tali's face mask.

* * *

**November 10th 2189**  
**Rannoch, Moreh District**  
**2145 hours**

Xen scowled at Rael'Zorah, her own little informant. "And how many Geth were captured during this escapade?" Xen asked critically. Rael looked down at yellow suited feet, his body language giving off waves of shame.

"None. The Geth committed their form of suicide, ungrateful Bosh'tets." Xen's black suit shook with rage, her eyes drilling through Rael with anger. She sat forward in her Throne like chair, her fingers laced through each other.

"What? Say that to me again, and be very careful." Her voice was dripping in venom. Rael was sure that she would not hesitate to kill this particular messenger.  
Rael swallowed his throat suddenly dry.

"The…uh…The Geth was all terminated."

Xen nodded understandingly."It's alright, Rael, it wasn't your fault. This has cost me dearly. Tell me, how are we meant to re-programme the Geth to obey our commands, if we can't capture one? How will this help us bring honour back to the Quarian People? You have one more chance, fail me and I will fill your days with pain, your name stricken from every ship's record, all the monuments to your family shall be abolished and your family exiled. Leave me"

Rael nodded, turned his back to the fuming Quarian, and walked out the door. Above this door was a sign. A sign that, in the security of Xen's non-assuming house, drew no attention.

"The Geth shall kneel before their true masters."

The motto of the infamous Ani'gaus do vis Quarian.

'The Guardians of the Quarian People'.

* * *

**November 11th 2189**  
**Rannoch, Rayya District**  
**0900 hours**

* * *

They lay there, enjoying each other's embrace, Tali's head resting on Shepard's bare chest. It fascinated Tali how Humans could become so toned. Shepard's arm held Tali's shoulder, pulling her in close."Wakey wakey, purple Lilly." Shepard's pet name for Tali woke her from her slumber, a playful smile crept along her face as she remembered that she was with her mate.

"What's a Lilly?" she asked, sneaking a questioning glance at Shepard.

"A Lilly is a flower native to earth; people say that it is the most beautiful thing a man can see. They're not usually purple though. That's why you're my purple Lilly." Shepard explained, kissing Tali on the cheek.

"Oh, you're so cute. What is it that you want?" Tali asked with a critical look.

"Why must I want something?" Shepard inquired, looking hurt. Tali gave him that look all men know, and all women use regularly.

"Fine, there's this new exhibit at the human embassy. They dedicated it to those who died fighting the reapers." Shepard said, accepting defeat. Tali sighed and looked sad.

"Shepard, I know it's hard for you to cope with, but you're not part of the alliance anymore. Everybody knows that court-martialling you was wrong, but you can't keep hoping that one day you will be welcomed back with open arms. I'm sorry, I really am, but it's not going to happen." Tali almost sobbed at the end. Shepard **kissed her a final time on the fore head, and left her in bed.**

* * *

**November 2189**  
**Rannoch, Rayya District**  
**0930 hours**

After Shepard got changed into his work-out clothes, and promptly headed for the training room, he had insisted that the house have one. He hated not having something to do, training, hiking, reading, anything to keep his mind off the alliance. Even during his weight lifting, one of his favourite pass times, he felt…empty, like a large part of him had been ripped out, leaving nothing but a hole. Shepard dropped the weight heavily on the floor, cracking the floor slightly. He walked quickly, almost at a jog towards the shower, Tali stood in his way, suit on, mask on. Shepard's feelings immediately turned from sour thoughts, to thoughts of sorrow and protection towards Tali. "Shepard, I know you're going to go to that exhibit, but I want you to come with me first. Then I'll go with you. Is that okay?" Tali asked, her voice draped in worry for Shepard, she had never seen him like this before. Shepard immediately felt ashamed. Not once today did he think how Tali would react to this.

"Where would we be going?" Shepard asked, genuinely intrigued.

"We're going to see an old friend." Tali replied in a playful voice.

* * *

**Author's Note:**

K N7: Wait, Rael's alive?!  
N N7: Or is he? oooOOOOooooOOOO  
K N7: How?  
N N7:That's the question isn't it? *laughs maniacally.


	2. Ch 2: The Asari Broker and The Merc

**Chapter 2: The Shadow Broker and the Mercenary**

* * *

**November 2189**  
**Rannoch, Idenna District**  
**Liara T'soni**

After the Reaper war, The Shadow Broker, Also known as the Asari, Liara T'soni to her closest friends, went back to Thessia to help with the rebuilding of the planet after the war, problem was, the Asari Republic had fallen into chaos after that the Council found out that Asari politicians were hiding prothean artifacts inside the temple that the species had be religious towards. This in turn made the Asari community backlash at its government futility at giving away resources in a time of need, especially in a time of the reaper war.

After this reveal, Liara had tried to fix the governments ways by getting the best candidates seats in the government but that was to no avail as the candidates did not listen to the public and tried to fix the problem their way, by force, riots broke out all over Thessia and her colonies, wanting to break the secrecy in the government and revealing all prothean artifacts to the council so that they can be ready for anything. The Republic responded with military force to combat the rioting and quiet down the whole outcry that happened at all. Liara, seeing all of her resources going to waste, gave up on the reclamation of her government and moved her base to Rannoch where Shepard and Tali were living. The Idenna district had been a good fit for her 'Broker' Base to be set up; it was mostly in the outreaches of the whole planet, being situated mostly on its own. Most of the city was deserted by the time she set up shop, the Idenna had been home to many Quarians when they use to be nomads but the name of the ship opened old wounds for some so they decided to live in other cities or "Districts" as they call them.

When she was all set up, she started by restoring her network of contacts all around the galaxy as they have had been waiting for the Broker to re login so that their status can be updated for the broker to ready their next contracts. Liara re-assigned everyone to their posts and the whole network was back up and running after a 1 month disconnection from all of them.

* * *

She was out buying some parts for her little side project that she was making as a present for Sheperd and Tali, at this point, people where getter curious why there was an Asari on Rannoch and not rioting on the streets of their colonies, then a couple of Quarians started to walk up to her, a female in a gold and purple suit with a male beside her in a red suit with a blue trim. They were fully equipped with M-96 Mattocks and M-11 Suppressors at their sides; they did not look like the average police as they did no wear the standard blue colouring of the police. They got within a few meters before she started to get suspicious of the movement before her.

"Liara T'soni I presume" asked the female.

"Yes, that's me, what do you want" she replied and by the reaction of the male, she was sure that they weren't going to be a friendly pairing.

"We are here under command of the Asari Republic and we have a warrant for your arrest" the male intervened.

"What are the charges placed on my head?" Liara replied getting ready for anything out of the blue.

"Treason of the Asari Republic and attempted murder of Councilor Tevos" The Male stated and readied his pistol and aim straight at her midsection "You have the right to remain silent…" he was cut off when his female friend's mask exploded in a mist of red and gold with a shine of blue light streaking through it and the body dropped helplessly to the floor while two extra bullets flew through the air and hit the male in both of his kneecaps, effectively disabling him in the process. Civilians started to shout and run in all directions, making the shooter visible to Liara.

A human lowered his weapon and started to walk towards her in a matte black armor that had the resembles the armor that the Cerberus troopers use to wear with a bright yellow stripe going down his left arm, which looks like the N7 type of stripe, but not the typical red, also with a circle of darker yellow breaching from the right side of his armor with rays streaking out of it… The Sun of the Sol System! He holstered his GC- Javelin on his back and held out his hand towards the asari "Paul Lord at your service and looking at the display here you are in some serious trouble…" he lowered his voice "Shadow Broker"

Liara's eyes went wide not in surprise but in astonishment by the fact that he knew who she was, she stuttered out "Ho…how do you know who I am?!" She took the gesture in politeness and shook his hand back.

"You're not the only one with a good info service, it's not normal for an asari to be called for treason and let alone be on Rannoch" He outstretch his arms to prove his point "Put two and two together, add a bit of interrogating and voila, I have found her" He smirked with his last remark and lowered his arms, looking around for any threats "Are we going to go or stay out here for the police and journalists"

Liara shuddered at the idea of staying at the store but hated the idea of letting a merc follow her to her base that must be kept a secret; she asked "If you follow me, can I trust you to never reveal the location we are going to?"

He replied with a smile "Yeah sure, as long as you don't take me to my death, I'm all fine and dandy about it" she started to walk away from him "Oh? So it's going to be 'that' mutual relationship is it?"

She spun on her heal with anger written all over her face "NO!, you do not have the right to say that ow, I have only just met you, albeit you saved me from incarnation, but still, no. Until I can trust you, you cannot use your small talk on me at all times, clear?"

"Crystal Ma'am." He replied out of shock.

"Don't ma'am me you dolt, I am not in command of you, just a valuable asset…" she retorted with a sly grin. All this time the male Quarian was trying to escape from the area, this did not go down well with Paul, he decided to knock the Quarian out with a quick display of biotics. A blue aura flowing out of the Sun symbol going and then cascades down the yellow stripe of his left arm into the Quarian's head with a abrupt slam going slightly up, then crashing right back down, simply knocking the man out on the spot. Liara had to pull a surprised face once again as the biotic display from Lord had not gone unnoticed to the Asari, a human able to pull off a slam with next-to-no effort and such control is not normal, as well as the shimmering of the emblem brought confusion as well to her already growing awe.

"What? I know your a biotic able to produce a singularity and reave, a human doing a slam shouldn't confuse you in the slightest..." he changed plot "OHHH.. you wondering about this thing on my chest here" he punctuated his point by tracing his finger around his sun and down his left arm. "Unless we meet a person who knows about this more than I do, then you are out of luck with that explanation."

* * *

**A/N**  
**Here's the deal guys, updates every Saturday, unless we get a backlog the updates with change to a Monday/Friday deal, all updates on the upload time will be alerted on my bio**

K N7: So anyone like the Asari republic back-story hmm?  
N N7: Maybeh, Well the hell is the OC then?  
K N7: *groans* impatience one aren't you  
N N7: No, just annoyed  
K N7: Doesn't 'Paul' sound to cliche? *winks*


	3. Ch 3: The Sharpshooter and The Cabal

**Chapter 3: The Sharpshooter and the Cabal**

* * *

**November 11th 2189**  
**Palavan, Cipritine**  
**Spectre Garrus Vakarian**

Garrus felt the hard rock scrap against his armour, with his eye pressed into the scope of his Widow Anti-material sniper rifle. He holds his breath as the crosshairs pass over the centre of the target. He gently pulled the trigger, and the silence of the surrounding area filled with the reverberating crack. Two seconds pass. A soft thump reached his ears.

"Not bad. Room for improvement though. My turn." A soft voice said.

"Go ahead, you can't do any better." Garrus retorted, a playful smile etching itself on his face. He looked at the source of the voice. A fragile female Turian, skin a light brown, white paint adorned her face. Her name was Nyreen, and she was Garrus's wife.  
She took her position on the floor, eye to the sight, in less than two seconds, she had found her target, held her breath, and fired.  
Garrus whistled. Only once had someone beaten him in a shooting contest, and he was proud that it was Commander Shepard. Nyreen had beaten him by a mere one point.

"I let you win, you know." Garrus said, wide-eyed.

"Sure you did. You're just so gentlemanly." She replied with a sarcastic voice, her eyes rolling in her head.

Several Hours Later:

After having a picnic, to celebrate a day's good sniping, the couple looked out at the red horizon. The towers that had once obscured all view were nought but rubble after the Reaper invasion. The Turians' were having difficulty rebuilding, they had been banned from the citadel for several more years. This separation from the citadel was taxing the government to its limits. The hatred between Humans and Turians was now forgotten, the Turians feeling grateful to the Humans, for saving the known universe. Garrus got quite a few thank-you cards as well. And so he sat there, his arm around Nyreen as they sat, and observed the sky.  
Garrus lifted his glass of Turian Brandy from the checked blanket, which striked a remarkable resemblance to the old Scottish Kilt, he didn't drink it. He just held it. It comforted him.

"I miss the war. You know? I didn't care about the fighting, it's that I had something to do, a clear target I was meant to reach." Garrus said as he swirled the Brandy around his glass, allowing the aroma to lift his spirits.

"Honey, you do have a clear target, you have something you need to do, but you can't keep living in the past. You have responsibilities now." Nyreen replied lazily, leaning harder on Garrus's strong shoulder.

"Then, please, help me. I don't know what to do. Surly there must be more than just advising the Hierarchy, yes it pays well, but that cannot be all there is to my life now." Garrus said, his voice portraying his sorrow.

"Garrus, you have a wife, and a large house, overlooking the most beautiful spot on Palavan, you have family to take care of. Are you saying that this is boring? Are you so high and mighty now that you really can't see what you have? You are one of, if no, the most influential person on this planet. Surly you can deal with that." Nyreen reminded Garrus. These conversations were becoming more and more common, and Nyreen didn't like what Garrus was talking about.

Garrus allowed Nyreen to sit on her own, while he knelt on one leg.

"Dear wife, will you not retire to our home, so that we can gallivant around, and drink and sing to our hearts content?" Garrus said in his best formal voice, which was getting a lot more realistic now that he regularly spoke to the Hierarchy. He held his hand out, palm upwards, gesturing for Nyreen to take his hand.

"Of course, my brave soldier, together we may sing about your glorious victories." Nyreen replied, following Garrus' lead, and together they walked from their mountain hide-away, grabbed their sniper rifles, and headed home, the sunset reflecting off their armour.

* * *

**2 days later**  
**Garrus' home**

"Happy birthday!" Nyreen yelled into Garrus' ear, in an effort to wake him up.

"Ugh. Nope. Can't do it. More sleep." Garrus moaned, not even opening his eyes. He turned over, his back now to Nyreen.

"I made you Dextro Pancakes, laced with maple syrup." Nyreen said, making sure to stress the maple syrup. She often wondered that, if Garrus were Human, would he be _Canadian_?

Garrus sat up immediately.

"Maple syrup?" he inquired

"With a side order of pancakes, yes." Nyreen answered cheekily. Garrus would never admit it himself, but he couldn't cook pancakes himself, and Nyreen would only make him pancakes on special occasions. But this was a special occasion, this was his birthday, and she'll be damned if she ever misses one. She handed over his pancakes, which he began eating with gusto. Generally, breakfast in bed was a Human custom, but Nyreen wanted Garrus to know that she didn't care about his past. That he had worked with _aliens_. It was her firm belief that the Turian's should be able stand on their own. Though she had worked with aliens before, that was a necessity, she needed the work, and she wasn't proud of it.

As Garrus exited the house, he looked back. A simplistic house, bathed in an orange sky. He sighed. He had always enjoyed the simple tastes, as long as it did its job, it was beautiful. That's why he favoured the Widow anti-material rifle; it was quick, powerful, and easy to use. Garrus went for his daily walk, up to the commons, down to the market, then an hour of target practice. He had been trained to always be ready for battle, and he refused to lose his edge now. This morning however, he felt like going for some target practice first. So he went to the hill, where the fog was thick, and the shots were more difficult. He felt like he needed a challenge, he was after all a council spectre, and he just knew that his duty was coming. There was one thing he didn't like about being a spectre, he had to lie to his wife. Palavan's financial troubles were in fact not due to Palavan being banned from trading; Palavan was in fact researching a new type of ship. The dreadnoughts were heavy hitters, but this new breed of war ship? This would be unparalleled. Garrus had seen the Humans' "Star Wars" and he was proud to say that this would rival the death star. But Garrus had heard about the attacks on the Geth, and if anybody was willing to attack civilians just to send a message, then they might be willing to attack a universal government project. That is why Garrus felt as if he was due in for service any day now. Things had just been too quiet. It had been too long since the last attack, something had to give, either he would be sent to investigate, or to stop an attack.

"Damn." He whispered to himself, his thoughts causing him to miss one of his shots, going wide to the right. He decided that he had had enough target practice for today, and started up his Omni-tool, then proceeded to check his messages.

Only a single message. He activated it, recognising the number. It was from the Council.

"Spectre Vakarian, the council believe that it would be in the best interests of the galaxy, if you were to aid in the demolition of the 'Ani'gaus Do Vis Quarian,' they are the terrorist group that have been attacking the Geth, we have tried our hardest to keep from the public view."

Garrus had never cared for all this politicians' talk, all just excuses to him. He wasn't really listening to the start of the message, they were all the same, blah, blah, blah, and we tried our best, just a load of rubbish. There was one thing about this message that did intrigue Garrus, this "Ani'gaus Do Vis Quarian. The council had tried to keep it from the public view, but the destruction of government property, and the investigators, does not go un-noticed for long. There had been reports of the Ani'gaus on the news, though very little was known. People seemed to think that this was the new name of Cerberus, Garrus didn't think so. He had learnt to trust his instinct, and his instinct said that this was a new group, very well-funded, and very well hidden.

The message continued.

"We are sending you the 'Mount Snowdon,' it may not be as stealthy as the Normandy, but it will suit your needs. You have one week to prepare for boarding, the ship will be waiting at the Cipritine space port. Please, do not attempt to command this ship, the captain would not like that one bit, and you do not want to annoy this captain."

Garrus quickly checked the sent date, 2 days ago. No wonder he never heard it, he had his Omni-tool off for his date. Garrus jogged home to collect some of his stuff, he refused to run, it would leave him tiered and vulnerable to ambush, an old trick his father had taught him.

He waited for Nyreen, she would want to know where he was going, and she had a right to know.  
He wondered who this captain was, it wasn't Shepard, he was discharged, unfairly in his opinion, maybe the person who took his place, either way Garrus had a lot to say to this new captain.

* * *

Author's note:  
K N7: More plot holes bunnies running rampant!  
N N7: Hunting season it is!


	4. Ch 4: The Captain and The Quarian

**Please send us your reviews, we are hungry and must feed off your ... feedback. that metaphor didn't go as like we would have liked.**

* * *

**Chapter 4: The Captain and The Quarian**

* * *

******November 17th 2189**  
Earth, **London**  
**Captain of the ANV Mt. Snowdon**  
**Konner Pearson**

After the Reaper invasion of 2186, the alliance was also victim to the disorganization of its forces around the galaxy; most of the outer colonies were destroyed or harvested by either the previous Collector forces or just by the Reapers themselves. Some had to deal with Reaper warships falling over after the Crucible beam had destroyed their main circuits in them. Most of the Alliance warships had been disabled in the aftermath of the beam as only AI's were not affected by the blast. The warships had been disabled and left in space with the crew waiting for Quarian ship to pick them up (Quarians fixed their ships the fastest and helped gather the whole Alliance from space as a thank you for helping them retake their planet).

Captain Konner Pearson had been promoted to captain after being the main spearhead for the final assault on Earth by co-coordinating strikes on London to help Hammer Team stay alive on the way down. He sacrificed many ships to stop a Reaper from landing next to Harbinger to assist in the killing of Commander Shepard's squad. He remembers the name Shepard from somewhere but all he knows now is that Shepard is now a hero of the galaxy but is still shunned by the Alliance for working with a terrorist organization Cerberus, Konner should be killed for what he did for Cerberus but he will never let that secret get out about his past life. Konner now has been in command of the Snowdon for 2 years and has had many successful missions including stopping a Turian revolt on the Hierarchy in 2188 and saving the SSV Normandy from Asari pirates in 2187. He is the third most decorated Human. Falling behind Admiral Hackett and Admiral Anderson.

In London, Konner and his girlfriend were in a restaurant, having a good time while they were on shore leave for a few weeks enjoying their last dinner just before they would head out for some alone time around the city "So you lived up on the Idenna hmm? Wasn t that the ship who got attacked by Cerberus trying to find this Biotic Woman?" Konner asked to his girlfriend Yani Raan vas Mt. Snowdon nar Idenna.

"Yeah that event was the reason I kinda got kicked out of the crew of that ship, half of my friends got killed while Cerberus was destroying the ship"

Immediately regretting saying anything about it, he replied "Oh Shi-, didn't know you had old wounds like that Yani, I never bring it up again"

"It's ok, you didn't know, just don t bring it up again please, these wounds haven t healed and I don't want to reopen them again, that day was just t-terrible..." she broke down sobbing with her head in her arms, trying to look away from Konner.

"Who said I liked that day? Hmmm? I've hated Cerberus ever since they were deemed a terror organization, Look you are in a fancy restaurant with a human boyfriend, I should be a god in your eyes" He pulled her arms down from her head and stared into those shining globes that were her eyes with a smile on his face, then getting up, taking Yani's hand and leading her out of the restaurant. "So. Where or what do you want to do next love?"

She had a renewed bounce in her step "Why don t we go down and see what's new in the tech industry, you need to upgrade your Omni-tool, you haven't since our last shore-leave 5 months ago and also a certain Quarian needs to keep you with her tech or she might become useless" she said with a hint of sarcasm in her tone.

"You'll never become useless to me" he said and whirled Yani into a hug and tapped his forehead against his own.

"I'll never forget that Konner"

* * *

They went into the tech shop and saw a Turian clerk waiting at the counter and rustling around said counter, presumably taking stock for the night cycle of Earth, Yani went off to update their Omni-tools and Konner went off to see what mods there were for his N7 Piranha. _Ammo upgrade? Nah. Piercing mod?. No. Fire Ammo. . .? Hell no! AH ha! Accuracy mod ho!_ He picked up the mod and some ammo pouches for his gear and went to the counter to get his stuff checked out, while he was doing this, Yani walked up behind him and laid down to silver bracelets (which were the Omni-tools) and laid some other parts down as well that she was probably getting for the ship, the courier scanned Konner ' items and was about to harass Yani about being a Suit rat and other business. Ugh, did he hate these jackasses who can t leave them alone and let them go about their own business.

"Hey you!" Yani looked to see who had said that behind her but saw no-one "Hey Quarian, you blind or something?" She looked back to see a disgruntled Turian looking her eye-to-eye "You sure you even got enough credits to buy this kinda stuff huh?" he said in a mocking tone, not expecting anything from the female Quarian.

"Actually I do" she said back with a smile.

"Well then, all of this will be 78001 Credits" He replied back with a smirk of his own.

"Wait all of this adds up to 42010 Credits and I ve got proof of the calculation right here"

"Nope either take it or leave it Quarian"

At this point Konner about had enough of the racist idiot and decided to intervene before overloads and drones started to fly about "I'm sorry, but aren't you being a bit rude here to this Quarian sir?" he asked calmly and before his temper started to rise.

"No, just doing business with someone who won't accept the price laid out to her"

Yani started to catch on to what Konner was about to do and played along "He is cheating on me!" She pointed accusatory finger at the Turian "He increasing the price just because I'm Quarian" She blurted out.

"Is this so?" he put his hand on his chin in deep thought "Well this is Earth and now that the Quarians are a council race, I should have you arrested on grounds of racism" he pondered even more "I'll give you one last chance, give her the items at the right price and you wont have a 24 gauge slug going so far up your rear, you ll be tasting the bullet yourself" He unlatched his Piranha to prove the threat was a worthy and kept it aiming at the floor with a trigger finger of his.

"Fuck you, Human" The Turian was enraged and pulled out his own sidearm, the N7 eagle

Konner saw the gun '_Wait. Aren t they only suppose to be with N7 operative only?'_ he thought but still as the Turian was readying his pistol, Konner pulled his shotgun with one hand and had his shotgun pointed slap bang middle of the Turian's bare face.

"You wouldn't dare" His gruff voice coming through the end of the barrel "You'll blow your own arm off with the shot!"

"How much are you willing to bet on that, skull face?" He turned his head to Yani and asked "Yani, pass me one of my armor piercing drums please" Yani searched through the pouches on his back and found the one he was looking for and passed it to him, with that he loaded the shells and pointed his gun back at the Turian "So do... or die"

The Turian looked perplexed at the sight of something "You know him Quarian?"

"Yes I do. He is Captain Konner Pearson of the ANV Mt. Snowdon, I'm Yani'Raan, _his girlfriend_" she stated as she was proud of this title.

"Woah, backpedal. The Captain Pearson?!" He said in a mixture of shock and dismay and lowered his weapon away from Konner "I am so sorry, here take this stuff for free for me wasting your time" he motioned at the stuff lying on the counter.

Konner didn't lower his shotgun but swung the barrel at the Turian's face which made a dent in his skull and growled at him "I want to **_never_** hear you be prejudice to Quarians again! Your lucky I'm not pulling your ass in for racism, now give me that Eagle and we will be on our way" The Turian reluctantly gave Konner the pistol and the Human and Quarian pair walked out together.

When they got out of the high street Konner turned around and stopped Yani for a moment, he took one of her turquoise arms in his hand and said to her "Do you know what day it is today?"

"No I don't love , what am I forgetting about this day?" Konner laughed at the answer "What? If it's so important, do tell"

Konner traced one finger up her suited arm and pushed her chin up so her eyes met his "It's the one year anniversary of me and you being together" he said with a smile spreading across his face "Anyway, here you present" He pulled the N7 Eagle off side and handed it to her "I've put a power amplifier in to it and added a barrel to it to pack more punch each time you shoot. Count on it to kill anyone who tries to get us"

Yani started to bounce on her toes and while she thanked him and said "Awww thank you Konner. Your to sweet.I'll have to repay you sometime soon" she. Grasped him in a bear hug and Konner accepted the embrace.

"Look, you don't owe me anything, you already have paid for being such a wonderful woman, now let's get back to the ship before I have Hackett complaining at me for staying out too long"

* * *

K N7: Double trouble Chapter inbound! Second part to Chapter uploaded on **Monday (16/12/13)!**


	5. Ch 4: The Captain and the Quarian pt 2

**Please send us your reviews, we are hungry and must feed off your ... feedback. that metaphor didn't go as like we would have liked.**

* * *

**The Captain and the Quarian Part 2**

* * *

**November 17th 2189  
ANV Mt. Snowdon  
Captain Konner Pearson**

Konner and Yani had just got back to the Mt. Snowdon ready for the briefing from Admiral Hackett about the situation of the galaxy again, he had been called many time to sort out messes in the galaxy that never needed force from the dreadnought, always diplomacy, he hated diplomacy, all the politicians just bicker and he never had time for there ramblings when he had a force to be reckoned with at his side

"Captain, Admiral Hackett is waiting for you on the QEC" The ships AI, KAI stated.

"I'll be there, don't you worry" Konner replied.

Konner walked into the communication room which had a quantum entanglement device like the Normandy SR-2's, Hackett standing at attention to him entering "Captain, thank you for finally joining us in this meeting"

Konner signed and asked "Is Councillor Iwae going to be joining us, I'd hate to ruin his parade about 'Human intentions' and 'political problems' to us today"

"No, Captain, Rob will not be joining us, just us two, this is a sensitive matter already I don't want this going round the council and definitely not through Raan, that's a worst case scenario made for a volcano eruption." He looked at Yani, who was standing next to Konner "No offence Miss, but your mother can be the overactive kind"

"None taken, I understand what you mean about her" Yani replied

"So shall we get going?" Konner nodded and Hackett carried on about the briefing "At 1800 yesterday, the colony of Shanxi, went dark and no communications has gone out from the planet and the brass is getting worried, we have no idea who or what has done to the planet, just that we are stuck for ideas of what to do"

"Have you sent any scouts to the planet?" Konner asked with a confused expression.

"Yes we have" Hackett paused "They have not reported back and their IFF's went offline a few hours ago, we need the Snowdon to scout it out with the power that she has, she won't have a problem if they attacked her"

"I see your point there, anything else I need to know?"

"Yes, the council is wanting to speak with you now" Konner huffed and started the frown.

Konner put a confused face on "Wait... you said we wouldn't be having the council issues today or did I get my hopes up too soon?"

I wanted to brief you in private before the politicians got at you, didn't ant them messing around with the plan I came up with anyway"

"Fine... just make it quick, I need my sleep, been out all day on leave."

"Good luck with the Council Captain, Hackett out" with that he de-materialized into a thousand little blue orbs and then they reassembled into the form of three figures, the current Council leaders: a Quarian, a Turian and a Human; respectively being Councillor Raan, Sparatus and Iwa

"Good day, Captain, it is a pleasure to meet you again, but I wish is was under different circumstances" Sparatus started the meeting off with his normal proceedings "We've brought this meeting to session today to talk about the threat over Shanxi, we have no-idea who or what is going on and we need your help in fixing this threat"

Obviously the Councillors did not know that just a few minutes ago, he had talked to Hackett about the same issue over Shanxi, Konner put on a neutral face and stated "Well I'm going to need more than just an assumption to send me and my crew to an unknown"

Iwae decided to speak up "All we are asking you to do is to go to Shanxi and scan the ground to see if there is insurgents or if there is ships orbiting the planet, we don't like that we are sending you in dark with so many unknowns, just that we want this situation sorted before it gets out of hand again"

Konner sighed "Fine... I'll check this out for you lot but if I get into a battle, I am using the full extent of the weaponry to get rid of the threat, Council laws or not. Also another point, you have had me run around in this warship that has enough fire power to give a Geth dreadnought a run for their money and stealth capabilities that rival the Normandy!" Yani looked wide eyed at her boyfriend as he went on a rant against the Council...again.

"I see your point Captain, but there is no need for warships in peacetime like this, the Normandy was created to support Turian and Human Allegiance, it was coincidence that a massive war broke out in the wake of the build. On another matter you will be picking up a Turian Spectre named Vakarian from Palavan at the port of Cipritine, he is going to be helping you on this mission"

_A Turian Spectre on a scout run? Suspicious? _"And why would I want a Turian Spectre on MY ship?

"Just a parameter for what you are going into, we want a person we can trust along with you just in case something goes wrong. Anyway you'll like him, he's not his average Spectre, he has served on an Human ship before so should fit well into your ship"

Sparatus added "We will see for your report on the ongoing events in two days, this meeting is adjourned" With that Iwae and Sparatus dissolved into particles which left only Councillor Raan standing there

"Can I help you Councillor?" Konner asked, confused at the reason why she was standing there, unless it was something to do with her daughter, Yani'Raan

"Oh, stop with the formality Konner, its Shala or just Raan while we are on our own" Raan replied sternly

"Yes, Ma'am" Konner replied with a mock salute

Raan looked to his side to look directly at Yani herself "So, child, how is he treating you?

Yani was caught off guard by the type of question thrown at her "In what sense Mother?" she said shyly "T-there is nothing wrong w-with him is there?"

"No Yani, just wanting your opinion on him"

"He's fine, he's been so nice too me and has always put me first, never been nasty to me ever"

"That is very good of him" She stopped and continued "If you _ever_ break her heart, you will have two blades going through your human heart" her voice grew in anger slowly

Konner decided to play defence "Look, if you think that I would think that I would break her heart, then you are significantly wrong, I love her with my heart and I've been with her for a year to this day, I got her a present for the anniversary see" he motion at Yani "Show her your gift, Love" he pointed his hand at the gun on her hip. She pulled the Eagle of the holster and laid it down on the interface for Raan to see.

"That's very thoughtful of you Konner even though it is an N7 model of this variant, isn't that suppose to only be with N7 operatives like yourself instead of being with Yani" Raan questionably

"Yes I know that, funny story, this gun _was_in the hands of a racist Turian, Might have taken it off him for his attitude to her, put a shock on his face when he found out who I was and for that I decided to take the gun off him" He said with a grin.

"Hmm I see your affection to him child, at he seems to live up to his promises, reminds me of another human I saw during the reaper war"

"And who was this said human?" Konner asked

"Captain Jonathan Shepard vas Normandy" She replied

Konner blood went cold at the name he heard, he had served under a Commander Jonathan Shepard before, _and it couldn't be the same one could it?_He thought "And how do you know him?" He was feasting for more info about said person

"He was the boyfriend of my friend's daughter, Tali'Zorah vas Normandy nar Rayya... your cousin Yani, you now the one who lost her mother at a young age"

Yani piped up "She was Tali? She is one lucky Lady to be the girlfriend to the Saviour of the galaxy, but I'm content with this human" She hugged Konner "The helper to him"

"Fine, thanks for talking to me Konner, I will want to see you in person when you get back from Shanxi, I need to debrief you personally, I have a worry of who is behind this"

"I'll see you when I get debriefed from Hackett, we can consolidate data then" Konner suggested

"Yes, that will do, have good will on your journey ahead Konner, Keelah Se'lai" Raan ended

"Keelah Se'lai" Konner and Yani said in unison, as Raan left, Yani looked wide eyed to him wondering why he said that

"What? I'm know more about Quarian culture than I think I know Human" He said with a smile, Yani let go of him and headed out of the QEC

"I'll be down in engineering if you need anything" She said while she walked off, leaving Konner on his own. Alone.

* * *

Konner went about his Captaincy business, keeping an eye on the crew, getting to know them and such. He went to the bridge to see his pilot Ben

"So how's it up here? Seems boring" Konner jumped on Ben with his shock showing as he got up to salute his captain "At ease, you should know not to salute me... ever, god damn formalities in the Alliance, I swear that will be why I leave it" He stopped his rant before it got out of hand like usual

"Konner, it's always interesting up here, it's just that your never up here to see the interesting arguments I get up to with KAI, they are hilarious, even Yani laughed at how petty we were" Konner and Ben sat down in their respective seat with them swivelling to face each other

KAI interjected "Ben, you are the reason we get into argument, you inferior knowledge of the races in the galaxy and your inability to form coherent sentences when you are losing said argument" Konner laughed at Ben misfortune

"Hey! Just because I'm not a super computer AI who computes Pi all day doesn't mean I have a less chance of winning"

"You do realize you have lost 98.7% of our argument"

Konner's quest for info continued "And what was the topic of this argument?"

KAI informed "The chance of you and Engineer Yani getting together in a relationship, which he won by 12 hours, 44 minutes and 5 seconds"

Konner was not surprised at this revelation "Well... you can blame Yani for that, she kinda started it"

"I can blame anyone I like, at that person will be KAI" Ben replied

KAI tried to act like he was shocked. And somehow worked "How can I be the blame if I had no way of altering the variables?"

"Because if you can't blame the Captain, next one to go to is the AI"

"Fine, be that way and I'll forget to recycle the oxygen then" KAI instructed

Konner burst out laughing again as the pilot looked horrified at the proposal

"What! You would never!" He shouted at the AI

"How much are you betting the Mr. Nash?" The AI imposed

"OK! I'll blame the Snowdon then, she's worthy of blame"

"Oh, Ben you are seriously leading yourself on a path of destruction" Konner said

"How am I? Mr. Intelligent"

"You do realize that the Snowdon is KAI? Since he is an unshackled AI he is the Snowdon. And now I'll leave you will the fallout. Also set course for Shanxi while you are dieing" Konner walked down the bridge to two words

"Thanks, Moon"

* * *

Konner decided to call an end to the day as the night shift had started aboard the Snowdon. He called the elevator to go up too his cabin on Deck 1. When he got there he hit the holo-lock on his door and went in to see a blue suited form sitting on his bed looking like they were waiting for him. As he got closer the shade of the suit gave it away, the turquoise colour meant it was Yani. "Yani, I didn't expect to see you up here now, it's the night shift, and shouldn't you be in your pod?"

She looked up at him "Well, I kinda felt bad for not giving you anything for our anniversary, I here to give it to you directly" She got up to close the gap between them but Konner was already there with her and sat down next to her

"You don't have to give me anything if it's a waste of resources to you or anything that is hard-wired into that brain of yours" He hugged her to calm her down, she in return broke the embrace to look him directly in the eye

"I want to give you a gift I should of given you a while ago" she put her hand up to her mask, and a small hiss of depressurization escaped into the room and her green mask was separated from her helmet and her face was shown to the gob smacked Konner. Her skin tone was a dark purple with a grey tint to it as the light hit her face. The eyes were like little glowing orbs with orange irises surrounding the bright pupil. Her head had two black stripes going from the top of her head and going straight down her face to the tops of her eyes. Her face was almost had a human look to it but had a more angular chin to it

Konner just sat there, speechless to the beauty he saw in her face, best he had seen ever, even better then some of the women of his own race, he finally got the use of his vocal cords back "Yani... you are beautiful" He caressed her face "I would love to kiss you but I don't want to get you more ill than you already will be with out your visor"

Yani was beaming "Oh, come on, not one for me?" She moved herself closer to him, he did the same and they were locked in a deep kiss that they didn' want to let go

That night was the night that Yani let herself be seen to the open world

* * *

K N7: No, not what you are thinking guys. Seriously? No. :K  
N N7: So not the thing I was thinking of?  
K N7: No, get over it. Period.


	6. Ch 5: Solar Interruptions

Chapter 5: Solar Interruptions

* * *

**Rannoch**  
**Geth Barracks**  
**November 16th**

Paul Lord looked across the mass of Quarians gazing expectantly at the ruined Geth barracks. There had been another attack, this one was more vicious and destructive than the last, and that worried the Shadow Broker to no end. Paul of course knew why this agitated her so much. The Shadow Broker was none other than Liara T'Soni, daughter to the late Matriarch Benezia, was a long-term friend with Commander Shepard, and to the Quarian people.

Paul remembered what had brought him here.

Liara had brought him to her office, a large room with multiple desktops and scattered hard drives. Taking up most the room however was a screen similar to the super-computers of the 2000's. The walls were bare apart from the pictures of her and Shepard's squad. Paul imagined that the entire squad had the exact same picture hanging in their rooms. Paul sat down on the sofa, it was soft and comfortable, and he could stay here forever. That was nothing to do with Liara he kept telling himself, he had made it a rule to keep his personal life two bus journeys, a long cab ride and a 5 minute walk away from his work life. She sat opposite on a spiny chair, legs crossed and arms folded as she leaned back into the chair.

"Well 'Paul', now that we are safe from the police, and in the comfort of my home, please tell me what it is you want, no one seeks me out for a chat." Liara made it a point to show that she believed that Paul's name wasn't his real name.

"Well, since you are so kind to invite me to your home, how about a coffee?" Liara looked very annoyed all of a sudden.

"Okay, no coffee then. Look, we both know that these attacks on the Geth are not some mere terrorist group, even I've pieced that together. Question is: what are they gaining by attacking the Geth? Since you have contacts on every continent of every world of every solar system, you should have some leads." Paul said, leaning back into a more comfortable position, arms spread over the back of the sofa.

"Actually, now that you mention it, yes, I did know that, and I was going to contact Shepard about it-"

"NO! You can't contact Shepard about this, he is probably on leave with Tali, or on some mission, I can take care of this." Paul quickly interrupted Liara, moving out of his position in a flash, quite literally since his yellow stripe lighting up faintly. Again Liara wondered about it, but stored the question away for later.

"Okay then, I believe that there will be another attack in 3 days. Same as before, a Geth barrack. I'll forward you the co-ordinates." Liara then raised her arm and tapped into her glowing Omni-tool. "There, they're sent. I don't want you to intervene, they cannot know we are on to them. Investigate afterwards, I took the liberty of getting the room plans for you." Liara glowed blue as a roll of paper lifted from the floor, over to Paul and into his hand.

Paul pulled himself from the memory. Why did he remember his conversation with Liara so vividly? Might there be something he had missed? He began to move out of the crowd, into the barracks. The first room held nothing but Geth bodies, Geth fluid and bullet holes. He moved to the next room, the barracks looked very much, like the barracks back in the Alliance. Again nothing in his room, yet Paul felt as if something was wrong, he continued anyway. He cleared the first row without any incidents, he didn't say anything though, if he did, something would invariably happen to ruin his day. He walked the next one hundred metres to the next barracks, he heard a rock being kicked behind him, and he turned and knelt quickly, pulling his N7 Paladin pistol from his thigh. No one. Just an empty house. After a full minute he put his weapon back onto his thigh, and left for the next building feeling unsettled. Only once in his career was he caught by surprise, and it had cost him most of his squad. He cautiously entered the next row of buildings, and searched for a further hour.

"There better be something more than bullet holes and corpses in this next one." Paul said aloud to no one in particular. Feeling a little deflated by his search, he stepped inside the building. He searched the building, every crevice, every crack. Then he saw it. That glorious little thing. He walked over to it and looked at it. A small silver ball in the corner of the building, he had seen them all over Rannoch, and he realised that all the ones inside the buildings, along with every piece of evidence capturing device in fact, had been destroyed. Not simply shot, hacked or burnt, they were ripped from the walls, blown up with a concentrated blast of gamma radiation, and stomped on. These people were pro's. Liara was right about that. With a silent smile, he hacked the camera and looked at the footage.

The Geth were all standing up, stationary. Sleeping by the looks of it. All of a sudden, a bright flash in the bottom right corner of the screen, the door he had entered thorough. Mass accelerated rounds pierce though the smoke, and the Geth fell, their hydraulic fluid spewing forth from their wounds, light bulbs shattering. The first few rows were dead, their corpses now being trodden on as their attackers chased the few fleeing Geth, their padded feet leaving no traces that the corpses had been touched at all, their suited bodies moving quickly and in a militaristic fashion, their masks reflecting those who came before them. These people were Quarians, but Quarians had no rivalry with the Geth anymore, so why was this happening? Paul decided to call Liara and send her the file.

* * *

**The Shadow Brokers Lair**  
**Liara T'Soni**

Liara was sitting down in her bed, watching a human programme from the 2000's, they called it "Breaking" something, Liara didn't get the name of the programme, but it didn't matter to Liara, the titles rarely contributed to the actual programme, but she did get the characters. This Walter chose to break the law, and cooked Methamphetamine to sell, so he would be able to leave his family something when he died of his cancer. She enjoyed this programme, she could relate, she would do anything for her family. She was so deep in thought that she jumped out of her seat when her Omni-tool bleeped, indicating a call. It was from Paul. She answered it.

"Hello, Paul, did you find anything?" Liara asked quickly, getting strait to the point.

"As a matter of fact, yes, I did. I'll send you the file now. Either they're getting lazy, or want more publicity." Paul said as Liara's Omni-tool bleeped again, she downloaded the file.

"Thank you Paul, it would have been more dangerous if I was the one to collect it. I'm sure – "Liara paused as she heard shuffling over the speakers. Paul should have heard it too.

"Paul? Paul, is something wrong?" Liara asked, genuine worry holding tight her heart with icy fingers.

Gunfire. Liara had been in battles before, but for such a small mission, so much fire was not necessary.

"Multiple hostiles, Quarians. Look at the file, I can get to somewhere safe, don't worry." Paul said, in obvious urgency.

The call ended abruptly.

* * *

**Geth Housing Estate**  
**Paul Lord**

Paul was speaking to Liara when he heard the shuffling. It was the shuffling of someone who had murder in mind, urgent and quiet. Paul took out his N7 Locust and began unloading clip after clip at the noise, all the time explaining to Liara that he would find a safe place to hold out and not to worry. He disconnected from the call.

Paul sprayed as he walked backwards towards the door behind him.  
_The door behind him_  
He turned just in time to see the Quarian launch himself at Paul, who in turn, rolled to the side and bioticly lifted his second attacker in the air, and threw him towards the first assassin. He heard a gratifying _oof _as the guy landed on the other.

"You'll ever take me alive" Paul said to his assailants smiling as he did so. He ran through the door and immediately tripped over a piece of rubble.

"Shit!" he swore as he hit his face on the dusty wooden floor. He pushed himself off and started to run again.

He ran through streets, taking every turn possible to lose his tails. Soon, Paul had to go to his holdout. Only half a mile away. It was an abandoned concrete warehouse. A slope towards the back, tons of cover at the top and none at the bottom, it had taken him weeks to set everything up, auto-turrets on the far sides, loaded with bio-chemical rounds, a Geth plasma turret was mounted in the middle of all the cover, and a nice supply of Locust ad Widow Anti-material ammo, along with food and drink. As far as bases went, this was one of his best. He ran up the slope, using his Omni-tool to activate the Auto-turrets as he passed, letting the automatic VI to calibrate the IFF. It was rudimentary, but it worked. He took position at the top of the hill, behind the plasma turret. As more and more Quarians poured into the area, he felt it prudent to open up and fill their suits with plasma.

_Damn suit rats_ he thought to himself. Soon, they began to learn that the open is where they died, so they stuck to the few covered areas. During these small gaps in the attack, Paul activated his remote distress beacon to his shuttle driver. It had taken a good two weeks to travel to Rannoch, during those two weeks, he drilled his shuttle pilot in every course of action if the beacon was ever activated. Paul was glad that he activated the beacon when he saw Quarian ships come over the walls, dropping Quarian drop soldiers, these weren't standard issue soldiers, infact, Paul had never even known that they existed. He told the turrets to attack the drop soldiers, and within 3 seconds, the Quarians were squirming all over the floor, blood gushing from their various wounds, groans of agony reached Paul ears, he didn't stop shooting.

When the plasma turret overheated, he changed to his sniper rifle, picking off anybody who dared to poke so much as a toe out of cover. Only when he heard the engines of his shuttle did he allow himself to smile, in this circumstance, his pilot would goompa stomp anyone he could while Paul would keep everyone off of the shuttle, only after every had been killed did he get onto the shuttle, but for the pilot to do this, the cover needed to go.  
Thankfully, he had several grenades lodged in the cracks of the stone. Hidden of course. He scrambled to a crate, staying low to the ground to minimise his chances of being shot. He grabbed a detonator and blew up the chest-high walls, thank god, he hated chest high-walls. H used his biotics to lift several people while keeping others in a statis field.

He rushed onto the shuttle and thanked his driver, who turned around to show his chiselled features, brown eyes and stubble.

"To the Broker, please." Paul said to the driver.

"Sure thing. It'll take a couple of minutes." The driver replied with a smile.

"Fine by me, I need a little snooze after the, let's face it, one-sided firefight." Paul joked.

Five minutes later, Paul walked out of the shuttle, back into Liara's home, went to the fridge, and got himself a drink of 'protein-up!' a protein filled drink perfect for biotics. He went to the living room and found Liara lying there, on the sofa, the room was a mess and the photos that once filled the room were cracked.


	7. Ch 6: The Avian's Spectre Story

**Chapter 6: The Avian's Spectre Story**

* * *

**November 18th 2189**  
**ANV Mt. Snowdon**  
**Captain Konner Pearson**

"Captain? We have dropped out the relay and are now orbiting above Palavan" Ben said over the comm., Konner waking up from the night before with Yani cuddling up next to him, stretching to get out of her grip to reply to Ben.

"Ok Ben, no need to wake me up or anything. Just tell me when we are 20 minutes from the port" Konner replied.

"Ok, Captain, I'll you two lovebirds alone to your own issues. Send pics!"

"In your dreams Ben, you are not getting any. Besides I don't want a Quarian that will scratch my eyes out because someone saw their face, so yeah, you want your eyes torn out if you were to know that?"

"No-no-no-no, I'd better be leaving you alone then!" He cuts the comm. off in time as Yani start fidgeting in her sub-conscious state "Wha?" She was trying to grab the silhouette of my former space that I had occupied "What did I miss? She slurred out "anything important in engineering for me to fix because of that damn pilot?"

Konner just smiles at the sight of Yani trying to untangle herself from the covers "No, just Ben being an ass as usual, so nothing to worry about" He makes his way towards her to get back in the space "So, how was you sleep in the captain quarters?"

"Not bad, I had a human pillow for my head to lie on so it was paradice, maybe we should do this again, you know, the cuddling and such?"

"Sure, but keep the other thoughts out of your head" I tap her actual forehead with my finger "You are in no state as a Quarian to do that stuff without medical help. On that subject, don't you need to get your mask back on?" He eyes the green tinted mask that was residing on the floor at the end of the bed.

"Yeah, your right, I'll go put it back on" She moved her head towards him and locks lips with him in a heart-felt kiss "Thank you-cough-" She heaved as she went into a fit of coughing and sneezing in front of Konner before she put her mask back on and pressurized it so that her suit was now air-tight. Ben cut in as she was about to speak "Captain, Cipritine command has allowed us to land and the airlock is getting crowded with a _lot_ of Turian's, better get down there and sort it out"

"Sure thing, I'll be down in 5" Konner turns to get himself ready for the meeting with the Turian"

* * *

**ANV Snowdon**  
**Cipritine Port, Palavan**

"Snowdon, be ready to be boarded" The intercom sounded as Konner was waiting at the airlock with Yani by his side, waiting for the boarding party with the spectre 'Why do I need this guy anyway, I can fend for myself' Konner thought as he squeezed Yani's hand as a sign that he was ready "Ben, unlock the airlock and tell them they are free to board"

"Aye, aye Captain" was all he said and the door opened and revealed 3 Turians, One in black and orange armour in the middle, _The Spectre , _then there was a female Turian with a bronzed colour armour with a black tint on his right. As well as one in the usual blue and black of the police force on the other side.

Konner held out his hand to the middle Turian "Welcome aboard Spectre, what should I call you?" He was unsure if the Turian would get the point of an handshake.

The Turian put his own hand out and shook Konner's hand to his surprise "Spectre Vakarian. But hell to formalities, just call me Garrus" Ben had heard that and shouted at the group. "Hey look, Konner, a Turian with a pole up his ass that hates formalities as you do, this is going to be good!"

The Turian just turned in the direction of the voice of Ben and just laughed "Hey, looks like I've got another ship with a smartass pilot, and this time I can beat the crap out of him because he does not have brittle bones!" That shut Ben up and he turn back around to look at his displays. Garrus laughed again and turned back towards his police escort and nodded towards them, the one in blue armour left, leaving the bronze female in place. Garrus was confused at the sight of the police ignoring him "So.. Are you going to leave?" The female just sighed and went to take off her helmet to reveal a striking red arrow going down her face. Garrus was gob smacked at the revelation. Konner and Yani were still confused "NYREEN?!" He shouted at the Turian but she was unfazed by the outburst "What in spirits are you doing here?!"

"Just making sure you were safe, I saw what your message said so I decided to follow you, I'm sick of you leaving home and not giving me a sound reason so here I am" she let him think. "That going to be a problem?" Sarcasm was apparent.

"No. Not really, in all fact, I think it's better that you're here. Having a person I know will help." Garrus replied

Konner got down to business "So, if you are all caught up, can we move on?" He saw and circled of nods and proceeded "So, Garrus, how long are you with us for, by the way… Nyreen is it? You will be staying for the same time as him. Nothing personal"

"Yeah, on the message I got from the council I'm suppose to be with you until we get this problem sorted out with Shanxi…" He pulled up his omni tool "then until the Council deems the mission complete" Garrus said as he read off his omni-tool.

They all started to move out of the airlock and towards the "Alright. KAI!, any available places for our guests to stay?" The pink hologram popped up and searched "The only place that isn't taken on the ship is the battery" Nyreen instinctively face palmed as Garrus' mood skyrocketed "It seems that it will no be a problem"

Yani jumped ship on the current conversation "KAI. Why on earth are you pink? Your normal operating colour is sky blue"

"Nothing to be worried about Engineer Raan" He pooped back into his usual colour being sky blue "Just changing things in the syatem and trying something new once in a while shouldn't hurt, Although I thought it was more of a light red than a pink"

"No, it won't, what's guns is this baby running?" Garrus asked with a slight smile on his face.

"Two Thanix Cannons on the Bow and 4 heavy pulse cannons on the wings"

"HO!, Two Thanixs? Damn the power drain must be huge. And how the hell did you get heavy pulse cannons off the Geth Consensus?" I pointed at Yani to answer his question "Oh, so I see, the Quarian got you Geth tech? Not surprising personally, your like the old couple I use to ride around in" Konner raised his brow as he heard this "And I've already said too much. I'll be going to calibrate the guns" He walked off into the elevator and left Nyreen with Konner and Yani.

"So... you have just lost him for the best part of a few days"

Yani replied as Konner was pondering the statement "What do you mean? He could be doing anything now"

"Oh-ho-ho, you have no-idea do you? He's a gun maniac. He **is **going to the main battery and going to calibrate those gun of your's and he will not be out till that thing is hitting a pinhead, so, yeah you not going to see him. Anyway, I'll go mingle with the rest of the crew. don't want anyone to stab me in the back for being a turin don't we?" She headed off towards the elevator to go down to the crew deck, Konner and Yani followed her and also dropped off at the crew deck.

"I'll see you later Yani, got to talk to our new engineer" He tapped his forehead against her visor and he stepped out as the elevator shut and went down to engineering. Konner made his way through the mess hall and went down the corridor to enter the main battery to her Garrus muttering to himself '_why is this so out of place' _and '_whoever calibrated this was as drunk as Tali was after Horizon' _He knocked his head on the top of the gun as he emerged from the underside of the gun "Hey Konner, what are you doing here, I thought you would be somewhere else, doing paperwork, since you don't have an XO"

"Nah, I don't do the paperwork, that's what Stevenson does, he also is the shuttle pilot so he gets his fix on the battlefield. Anyway I came down here to check that you were getting along with my ship. Don't want her to mutiny against you for nothing"

Garrus just chuckled "Yeah... She is out of aim a bit... well, a lot, so it's going to take some time to fix this since you have two of them. Well, I have calibrated a single one on my old ship, so two is a challenge for myself. Should be able to get it done within the day"

Konner just sat down on the box that was lying next to Garrus "You keep referring this ship to your 'old ship'" he pulled his air quote out "So please, explain"

The Turian just stopped what he was doing and grabbed another crate and sat himself down with his rifle in hand, going about cleaning it "My old ship is one you should know anyway, you've fought alongside it in the battle of Earth" Konner's mind had drawn a blank as he could not remember anything about it "Please, I don't remember, elaborate" Garrus stopped his cleaning and looked down at the floor "Well, your the first human to not tell me first" Konner moved his hands in a motion to say to carry on "It's the Normandy SR-2, was the chief weaponry specialist on it, it had a Thanix cannon like these two here" He pointed them out to him "It was an ass to work on because I had two engineers moaning at me about the power drawn if I got the thing to aim straight" Yani decided it was good timing to shout at us.

"Garrus! Stop fiddling with the gun. Your making my job down here a lot harder!"

Garrus just chuckled and shouted back at her "Well, it's either you have an easy time down there and we have a pair of uber guns that can't shoot straight or a gun that can shoot something that at distances that you can't see it and a hard time done there, anyway, don't you want a challenge for your tech skills there!" Yani just shook her head and started to work on the issues of power draw. Konner and Garrus resumed their conversation.

"Carry on then" Konner restarted.

"Being on the Normandy was an experience of a lifetime, having purpose in a team of people was a real boost to what I had thought about life. Being at C-sec before hand was a completely different thing to what the Normandy SR-1 was"

"Wait.. SR-1? there was a original?"

"How do you not know?"

"Alot of my work was... not in line before the Collector attacks. News doesn't go round as fast in the Terminus than in Citadel or System Alliance Space. So, please, explain to me what happened on this ship, how the ship got destroyed and warranted a new one?"

Garrus started to tell the story of the SR-1 and Sovereign "Well, before all of the reapers came out of dark space to destroy our asses, there was only one flying it's purple face around the galaxy, his name was Sovereign, he was a vanguard to the reapers arrival and came out of dark space to open the citadel relay so that the rest of the reaper fleet could come through and harvest the Council and all of the powerful member of society so that the rest of the galaxy would fall into disarray. In theory it would work. But the only way for the reapers to open the relays was the keepers, they didn't listen to them and Sovereign had to bust his ass with another Spectre and a Geth army just to have enough power to get to the Citadel control to open the arms for him to connect and link the mass relays to the ones in dark space. But he didn't count on the Normandy and the crew of said ship to come in and disrupt his plans with brain instead of brawn, that hulking mess of a purple monstrosity was destroyed by the old Normandy and their reaper fleet was stuck"

"That's a tale and a half. So what happened to the Normandy then?"

"Shepard, me and the crew were out on patrol scouting out major sectors for any Geth activity. It was all bullshit. They just sent us out to get rid of us and stop us from spreading the 'rumour' of the reaper's presence around Citadel space. While we were on our last run before we could get back to Citadel space and start warning people about this threat we were ambushed by an unknown signature, practically destroyed the Normandy in one hit by disabling us above Alchera. The Commander sacrificed himself for the whole rest of the crew and the ship went down with him"

"Ouch, that must of been hurtful for the whole crew, seeing the Commander of their vessel go down with the ship and leave them with no leader and nothing to go for"

"Yeah, that's kinda what happened, the Alliance cut all ties with the crew and liquidated any Human members to any other stations around the system alliance space. The other Races that were on the ship were discounted for any comments and were left in the dust. Tali took the most of the hit as she had just got her pilgrimage gift from the Commander and then was shipped back the the fleet with no help because the Council wouldn't help her even if she was part of the crew that saved their asses already. I was the most hit as I was sent back to C-sec which I left to go on the Normandy. So I was pissed, first thing I did was quit and got the first ship to Omega, wanted to do something good for the shithole of a station, got the nickname Archangel in the process"

"Woah... wait a minute. You were Archangel!?" Konner suddenly realized something that he had been part of a long time ago.

Garrus was surprised at the moment that Konner made his outburst "yeah, I've still got the emblem right here. He pointed at the Bird emblem on his shoulder that proved he was THE Archangel.

"I've saved your ass many times back then while your were on Omega, just as a Turian named... I think Sidonis? Yeah, just as he had a meeting with a blood pack member about killing your team, I had to save his ass when he was jumped on by a pack of Blue Suns and Eclipse, got really messy. He got shot and wouldn't take any medical treatment and just hobbled off muttering something about his life being over and betrayal"

Garrus' mandibles fluttered as he was going through his memories about the day he had let Sidonis live "Yah, he did betray my team, had the whole lot killed on the spot while i was distracted with something else going on, he is still alive but he is a shell of the previous man he was, he said that he was protecting his family, but he should of know about the dangers of being with the the group. Still, i don't want to dwell on that anymore. So anymore questions about my life before now?"

"Maybe, if you would let me go into your classified mind of a Spectre"

"No."

Konner facial features turn up on their own head "Oh come on! Please?"

"No. Only if you gain my trust or your put enough liquor into my system that could make a Krogan pass out"

"Oh, Fuck you then" Konner got up off his crate and walked off out of the weapons bridge and left Garrus to calibrating the guns

* * *

**See you in the next Chapter!**

N N7: So. Much, Backstory. Needed  
K N7: You do realise you can add to it right?  
N N7: Really?! *Runs off to Computer*  
K N7: God help us all


	8. Ch 7: Making Friends

Chapter 7

* * *

**John Shepard**  
**Rannoch**  
**Human Embassy**

Shepard just stood there, looking. He didn't move, he didn't even appear to be breathing. Tali felt worried, she didn't want Shepard to come here, to see the giant board of names of those who perished in the war. Shepard didn't talk about it much, but she could see the sadness in his eyes, it was like he felt responsible for their deaths. She walked up to him, and placed her hand softly on his shoulder.

"Shepard, are you okay? It must be hard for you, but you couldn't have saved all of them." Tali said, her voice wavering.

"That's not why I'm sad Tali, I know I couldn't save everyone, and I accept that, I would prefer not to talk about it please." Shepard responded with no emotion, eyes staring hard at her face mask. Tali had never seen Shepard so cold, not even when he rescued Toomes from the Cerberus scum that were experimenting on him, torturing him. Not even then was he so cold, and never to her.

She looked at the list, looking for any reason why Shepard would be acting so weirdly.

Steven Atlas, James Morgan, Kaidian Alenko, Nayfan Kane, Jane brulette. No one on that list was close to Shepard.

"Come on, its best we go." Tali said as she led Shepard away from the memorial, hand on his shoulder. He didn't move.

"I can't just leave, Tali, they deserve at least some respect. Do you just think that we can just say thank you and be done with it? Are you suggesting that we insult them by not honouring their sacrifice? They died helping us, they may not have known it, but they did, and how do you treat them? By acting as if they disgust you." Shepard said, his voice dripping with venom

"Shepard! How dare you?! I have stayed by your side through and through and I have loved you since that day you saved me in that alleyway. Do you remember that? Do you? Everything I have done is in your best interest, so when I say that dwelling on the past is not healthy for you, you can damn well believe it! Now come on, we need to leave, people are looking and you don't have the best reputation as it is."

Shepard turned and left, his hands clenched, knuckles white. Tali huffed and followed. Controlling Shepard was about to get difficult, and she knew it. Tali followed Shepard to their house, where they both got changed from their civvies into their more "elitist" clothes. A black suit lined with white for Shepard, and Tali's best purple suit. Shepard got his Omni-tool out and messaged his best friend, Flight Lieutenant Jeff "Joker" Moroue.

"Joker, its Shepard, me and Tali need to talk with you. Think you could Dock EDI and the Normandy at the Rayya district?" Shep quickly asked when the call connected.

"Shep, calm down, I was coming to collect you anyway. Rob Iwae asked me to bring you two to the citadel, didn't say what for though. I'll just be a couple of hours." Joker replied, sounding rather displeased at being told what to do by the citadel council.

"Good, I remind me to thank Rib for that. Me and Tali need some alone time anyway." Shep replied, his voice dipping in shame at admitting his relational hitch with Tali.

"Send pictures!" Joker shouted as the call disconnected. Shepard missed his antics. He sat down on the sofa, and waited for Tali to finish getting ready. One of the draw backs of being bonded to a Quarian he guessed. He hung his head in his hands and silently gave praise to the council. He knew of course, why Joker had been sent to collect them. Tali knew too, but never told him, lucky for Shepard, he was very good at mind games. He was thrown from his thoughts when Tali walked into the room.

"Now can we talk about what happened at the memorial?" Tali asked, placing her hand on her hip, which looked like it was trying to escape her body. Shepard sighed.

"Fine, sit down then, we got a few hours to kill before Joker gets here." Shepard said, gesturing towards the spot next to him. Tali moved across the room and sat in the arm chair, opposite Shepard.

"When you were looking at the memorial, why were you so cold to me?" Tali asked pointedly. Shepard shifts as if a pressure was bearing down on his shoulders.

"I'm sorry, but... there was something not _right_ about it. as if something was missing. I know this doesn't make much sense, am truly, i'm sorry. I really am." Shepard's eyes become moist as his vision shoots to the floor.

"Well, please try to remember that i'm here to help, we may not be legally bonded, but we're as good as." Tali sighs as both their Omni-tools break the silence that follows.

-  
**_FROM: JOKER  
_****_SUBJECT: EMERGENCY BEACON_**

_Liara's in trouble, new ETA 5 minutes, get moving!_

Both Tali and Shepard stare at the message, not a word spoken, complete absence of sound. With unspoken consent, both stand and rush to the door, previous worries vanish from their minds, in it's place, only panic.

* * *

**Normandy SR2  
****Cockpit**

"Glad you lot finally got aboard! now, come on." Joker shouts at the couple. "As if the council weren't bad enough, now someone's attacked Liara." He mutters under his breath, as he takes of from the docking station, and rushing to Liara's aid.

"How do you know Liara's in danger?" Shepard asks in a slightly panicked voice.

"Liara being as paranoid as she is, installed a distress beacon under her floor. Never thought she'd need it, but thank god she has it." Joker replied, spilling what Liara had said in previous massages between the pilot and her.

* * *

**Paul Lord  
****Shadow Brokers Base**

After checking that Liara still breathing, Paul lifted her onto the sofa, and onto her side, and began looking for any cuts or bruising to indicate that she was attacked. Though Paul only had to look around the room to find out that she was, he felt in prudent to check her. Professional concern, obviously.

"Come on, Liara, you fought with Shepard, you faced down more than some mercs, or some sad people looking for some quick profit." Paul said, trying to get Liara to respond.

Nothing.

Again Paul begins to search for any reason for her unconsciousness, but with no bruises or cuts, there is little he can do. He knows that Liara would have a distress beacon here some where, such a famous information broker could hardly afford not too. Just to find where it is now.

A good 10 minutes of solid searching later, Paul finds the beacon, and activates it, sending out a message to all ships that Liara trust's that she is in danger, and to come and help her out. Since Liara had served on the Normandy, there is a large possibility that the Normandy is the first ship to arrive. Which means meeting Shepard.

Better get ready with that being the case. Paul walks to the sofa where he left Liara, gently picking her up by the arms, and carrying her bridal style, to the door. There is a space cleared in front her house for just such occasions, so Paul decided to wait there until the Normandy arrived.

Minutes later, Paul heard the sound he thought he would never hear, the Normandy's engines, and true to the stories, they were the quietest he had ever laid ears upon. The Normandy came into view moments later, with the back already open, and a medic, a Quarian, and a fairly mad Shepard stood, until the ship came to a halt, upon which they jumped out, taking Liara from Paul, Paul letting them do so, thankful for the rest his arms received. Not that Liara was heavy, far from it, but he had been holding her this entire time, refusing to let her out of his sight for even a moment.

"What have you done to her?!" Shepard asks, throwing Paul a look that could scare a thresher maw, and knowing Shepard, it probably has.

"Nothing, I came back and her place was a mess, she was unconscious on the floor, I activated the distress beacon - " as Paul was talking about how he knew Liara and how he think she was attacked, Shepard' face never moved, the same anger was there when Paul finished. "I would like to stay with her if that is okay?" Paul asked, not really caring about an answer as he followed the medic to the med bay.


	9. Ch 8: Lunar Interruptions

Chapter 8: Lunar Interuptions

* * *

**ANV Mt. Snowdon**  
**In FTL above Gellix**

Konner was walking away from the main battery from where he was talking to Garrus about his past. He couldn't believe that he had met the Spectre before on Omega of all places. He walked down the gangway and made his way to the elevator of the ship and entered it, keying to go to the CIC. The elevator came onto to the floor and the first thing he saw was Nyreen pacing up and down the hallway that links the bridge to the CIC muttering to herself, unaware that Konner was looking at her, He leaned himself on a wall and waited. After a few minutes, she noticed him and walked over to him with a worried looking body language.

"What are you doing looking at me human?" She asked with a slight anger.

"The 'Human' has a named Nyreen, it's Konner." He puts his hand out for the Turian, she ignores it and proceeds with her anger

"Alright, Konner, what are you doing looking at me like that?"

"I'm concerned about your issue that you are pacing for over there." Konner replied with actual worry.

"Why would you worry about me? I'm completely different to you when we have issues, the Race barrier might be an issue."

"I have a Quarian girlfriend who has issues about her past most of the time and have been in work with other species during the last few years. So tell me, what's on your mind that is causing you grief?"

"Well being on a ship like this reminds me of when i was on the Normandy myself, Garrus was not the only one that was on hear at once, it's the way I met him." She perked up at the remembrance of him "The reason it brings up grief is because of what transpired that day on Omega that got me brought onto the ship in the first place." She started to shuffle and fidget as if she was nervous about talking about the incident. Konner gestured for the elevator and Nyreen accepted, they both walked into and went up to the his Quarters. They both sat on his couch and Konner made sure they were not being listen into.

"KAI, shut down monitoring equipment in my quarters, lock my doors and tell anyone who wants my attention can deal with the XO. Thank you."

"You have monitoring equipment around the ship?" Nyreen was confuse on the interest in peoples privacy.

"Nah, I have KAI delete the records everyday, but i just want to be safe. The council and Alliance wanted me on a lead all the time, I just passively ignore them and their concerns." Konner just smiled back and Nyreen mandibles shifted into a smile.

"Captain, recorders have been disabled, you are free to speak as your wish." his blue hologram disappeared.

Konner wanted to hear her story "So, please tell me what happened on Omega that has you riled?"

"So back on Omega, when it was the usual mess it is. I use to be a good friend of Aria T'Loak so I was on it being protection until the overrunning of Cerberus spread the base, It was all due to a human centric group being a new gang on Omega so Aria didn't bat an eye because she thought that the group would just get crushed by the other major groups

Such as the Blue Suns, Eclipse and the blood pack, even whaen there were the three most powerful groups, they were unfazed by the occurance of another faction, the Orange Wolf were a large faction in army size but they didn't make any moves on the other factions. Until one day they went all out and had the other 3 kicked of Omega as fast as they were there."

"How on Earth did they get that many personnel on Omega that fast and have an army that size in a blink?" Konner asked, sceptically.

"They weren't just an ordinary faction, they were Cerberus." Nyreen stop for effect and Konner inclined to carry on. "They intended to use Omega as a command centre for there troops over the course of the war with the Reapers. They in turn made it a experimenting site for they're new creatures. The Adjutants."

Konner looked on confused at the new Reaper names that he had never heard before now. "So… what are these 'Adjutants'. What race are they suppose to be?"

"They have no race index, all we know is that they came form the Omega four Relay beforehand and that they my have been a Cerberus creation from an race multiple cycles ago. Anyway, back on track, they were being controlled by Cerberus, or trying to be, because they were set free within the lower of Omega and got out of control. They had the power to bioticly jump from place to place and were full of armour that had to stripped down to kill them, even then you had to decapitate them so that another one didn't come by and re-animate it's friend out of the blue, things always give me the creeps."

/-/

**_Omega  
Outside Afterlife  
Nyreen Kandros, Aria T'Loak, Commander Shepard_**

_Nyreen, Aria and Shepard have just made there way out of adjutant territory and had moved through the district that Mordin had taken care of, Talon following there attack through the district, taking care of any of the stranded Cerberus troops that are stil roaming the district. Killing off a Centurion, an engineer and it's turret that was with it, being careful not to take any civilians out with it, Nyreen would not be pleased if 'her' civilians would be caught in the crossfire of an all out station-war. They made their way through the doors from the market and onto the main area that was before afterlife, the sight that they saw was one of an nightmare. Multiple adjucants were surrounding a group of about 10 civilians on the stairs of Afterlife's main door, the scared Cerberus soldiers just retreated through the doors and lock it behind them, hoping that it would stop them from entering Petrovsky's command base. _

_All of the team sprung into action as Shepard's phalanx barked as it fired shots down the area at the closest Adjucants, doing nothing more than just pissing it off more than usual, as soon as it got a bead on Shepard location, it bioticly jumped across the area in front off Aria, knocking her off her stride and she went crashing to the floor in front of it. The creature just ignored her and focused on the commander like it had a personal vendetta against him. Charging up and jumping across a second time, this time colliding with the commander directly, sending him flying backwards and into the resident wall waiting for him. _

_Nyreen was to bunched up in her own fight with two of the adjucants, using her talon that was loaded with warp ammo to shred the barrier of the adjucant and take out the barrier engine that was sitting happily to her left, while she was distracted by the engine, the other adjucant was leaping across the room directly at her and knocking her off her feet, this wasn't for long as she hopped back up and unleashed a hailstorm of mass effected rounds at the adjucant in front of her, priming him for a biotic explosion. Sensing this she let a a Lift grenade loose from her belt and ran right past the glowing adjucant and straight for the body of Aria that is laying on the floor. She produced a Biotic barrier that engulfed her and Aria as the grenade went off, exploding in one of the adjucant's faces as one was torn apart at the molecular level and the other one was forced back and was knocked off its feet._

_Shepard was shocked at the thought that this beast had beat him at his own game of charging 'Tali's gonna be mad if she find out I was beaten by an mini-scion' He got himself back up and checked to see if anything was broken or bruised, not that it mattered due to his cybernetics and the wonderful power of medi-gel. Not that he would have enough time as the 'mini-scion' brought his arm up the crush the helmet of Shepard's Terminus armour to not avail as Shepard head moved out of the way and he launched a biotic punch towards the 'stomach' area of the beast. To his dismay the creatures barriers reappeared and were fully recharged. He retreated back and picked up his phalanx that was on the floor and re-holstered it, intead pulling out his N7 Crusader and loading it with the Armour-piercing rounds and rising it towards the creatures face and let fly the slugs at the first one was deflected by the barriers on just made matters worse as the adjutant got even worse as it raised it's arm to face Shepard and the cannon charged up with the purple aura diminishing from it's body and focusing on the arm. Shepard took this advantage and changed his aim to the arm and released a shot that flew through it arm and disrupted the aura that was building a that point and the shot that was about to be released was backfired at the creature and ripped the top half of the body off in one slice, leaving it as a mess on the floor of Omega._

_Nyreen had just got herself off the fall just after the explosion of her Lift grenade, she went to get Aria off the floor to move her to a safe place away from the enemies, the only adjucant that was left started to move towards the civilians again. Aria had started to come back to reality as she saw herself being carried by Nyreen, she immediately got of her and got her shotgun back out, seeing the adjucant that Nyreen was seeing. Shepard, also seeing the predicament, ran up to there position and readied for battle once again. The creature noticed the armada of the group and decided to focus its aggression on the enemies of itself by using it's biotic weapon, it charged up as the Nyreen, Aria and Shepard duck to cover as the gun released it's energy for the first time, engulfing Nyreen in it's biotic atmosphere and lifting her up into the air. The creature took it's advantage and charged towards the stricken Turian in the air and thrusted it arm into her chest, making the Turian bleed and drop to the floor in a heap.  
Shepard saw the adjucant charge Nyreen and throw her to the nearest wall, upon which Nyreen slumped, unmoving. Shepard charged the adjucant, pulling his knife from its sheath, and plunging it into the adjuncant's cannon, disabling it. The adjucant moving to dodge Shepards punch towards its head, barely doing so. Shepard still had the adjucant stuck to his knife, and forced it to look at him. Suddenly a talon ripped through its chest, spraying Shepard with blood and gore._

_"I hate those things" Nyreen said as she slid the now dead adjucant off her talons.  
__/-/_

**_ANV Mt Snowdon  
_**

"Captain!, we are coming out of FTL over Shanxi, but the radar says there are over 50 ships already in the area, most of them are not even in the database with the exception of one that is flying around the dark side of Shanxi" The comm blared with Ben's voice coming through it as well

Konner thought for a moment before signaling the command "Call general stations and charge up the guns. We need to be ready for anything"

Konner got up from where he was sitting and made his way to the elevator with Nyreen. Shit just got serious.


	10. Ch 9: I-Spy

Chapter 9

Paul whistled as he finished the tour of the Normandy SR2. Shepard would have led the tour, but he needed to look after Liara, so Joker had to lead the tour, letting EDI take the helm.

"Glad you appreciate her, took a long to get her where she is." Joker said, the pride in his voice evident.

"Joker, I believe that you were talking about me, whereas Paul was talking about the ship" EDI said over the intercom. "That was a joke." EDI says to clear up all confusion.

Paul laughed out right at that. "Thank you EDI, though I think Joker knew that."

Joker looked hurt at EDI's words.

"Joker, me and Liara, we need to go to the Citadel. We need to see the council after Shepard and Tali."

"How did you know that's where we were going?" Joker asked, one eye brow raised.

Paul sighed. "They were wearing formal wear, wouldn't wear it in public, so they must be seeing some sort of authority. They asked you, you're the best pilot, so somewhere with class, Citadel it is, could be going to see the Alliance, but Shepard was discharged, so that's out, Council then. Want to know why they're going to see the council?" Paul said in one quick breath.

"Sure?" Joker replied, unsure.

"Tali's going to become a Spectre. Council's only good at one thing, can't make Shepard a Spectre again, so it's Tali, I'm so proud."

Joker just stood there, leaning on his crutches, mouth agape.

"Damn" Joker said in disbelief. Paul just stood there looking bored. When his Omni-tool bleeps, informing him that Liara is now awake. "If you gotta go, don't worry, it will be a while before we reach the Citadel."

"Cheers, Joker." Paul says as he walks off towards the medical bay. Passing the galaxy map on his way to the elevator. Pressing the 3rd floor button with a classic _DING _noise as the doors close the elevator begins it's excruciatingly slow descent.

Finally the elevator stopped at the 3rd floor, and Paul walks out, thankful for being able to stretch his legs at long last. As he walks into the med bay, he is confronted by the sight of Liara laying down on a bed, with Tali and Shepard standing by her side, asking her all kinds of questions about how she was knocked unconscious.

"But why were you attacked?" Shepard asked, voice betraying his concern.

"Ah, I believe I can answer that for you" Paul said, to spare Liara the pain of remembering the event. "I was investigating the attacks on the Geth, I sent a file to Liara, and they must have traced it. It was my fault, and one that I am ashamed of." Paul dips his head, angry at himself for not thinking of that.

"And did this file give you anything?" Shepard asks.

Liara perked up at that bit. "I had time to search my contacts for any mention of some sort of attack including Quarians. Only place they came up with is Shanxi."

"Shanxi? That's a human colony, not as many Geth as Rannoch, why change targets? Or is that where they are operating from?" Shepard asks, is face in a grimace as he tries to put the pieces together.

"Only one way to find out." Paul says, thinking of the terrain of Shanxi.

**Normandy  
Orbit over Shanxi  
Paul Lord**

Paul looked out of the window, and down on to Shanxi, the planet rotating beneath the ship, peaceful.

It looked so peaceful. Paul had seen Eden Prime, and that was the only colony that compared to the one he is now looking down upon.

"It's a beautiful planet huh?" Said a voice behind Paul, who didn't even blink at the new voice.

"I was just thinking that. Shame we're probably going down there, blowing it to hell, and leaving with nothing to show for it but a large dent in our budget." Paul replied to the voice, his own filled with regret. He turned to reveal that the voice was Kelly. The yeoman was always into things with hidden beauty. Paul could see a future with her if he wanted. But he didn't want that kind of life.

"Such a positive outlook. You should come see me some time, maybe I can help you." Kelly said, her voice tinged with concern.

"Why would I need that? I'm fine." Paul said, declining her offer without a second thought. True, he did want something more, but he didn't know what. Maybe he just needed to be honest, maybe it wasn't the right time.

"Well, if you change your mind, you know where I'll be." Kelly left with a small smile.

Suddenly, a blue flash appeared in Paul's window. And another. And another. When all three ships were in his view did he realize who they were.

Pirates.

The alarms blared, piercing throughout the ship, everyone began scrambling to their stations, be it cannons, medical, or something else. Paul ran to the cockpit, not knowing where to go in such an instance.

"What's happening?!" Paul yelled at Joker, hoping he would be able to avoid the pirates.

"Well, I faked an attack because I wanted you to get me some ice cream. WHAT DO YOU THINK IS GOING ON?!" Joker replied sarcastically. Paul quickly gave Joker the bird, but stumbling when a cannon blast rocks the Normandy.

"Shit! Joker, Get us out of here!" Shepard practically screamed at joker as he ran up the deck. "Everyone on the ground mission get to the escape pods." Shepard commanded efficiently.

As the last person was jumping into the pods, the doors closed and launched them towards Shanxi, as Joker shot the Normandy off towards the randomly selected co-ordinates in FTL. The pirates followed, leaving the crew falling towards the planet in relative safety.

"Well…" Paul said to fill the awkward silence that had befallen them. "That happened" everybody looked at him.

"Yes. Yes it did. Thank you captain Obvious, I never would have realized otherwise." Tali said, a bit too sarcastically. With that attempt at conversation shot down, they rode the rest of the way down in silence, contemplating what had just happened.

Shanxi's Surface  
Paul Lord

As he exited the pod, he grimaced. The landing had been bumpy, and now he saw why. They were next to the main settlement, but behind them, was a massive cliff. The dust still settling from their impact, the others crawled out of the pod, making various noises of pain and discomfort as they did so.

"So, what now Shepard?" Paul asked, genuinely not knowing. He had been on other planets before, but that was to find whoever he was looking for, not to wage a miniature war.

"Did you listen at all at the briefing?" Shepard asked in response.

"What briefing? You asked everyone what was going on, we told you what we know, and now we're here. About some Geth." Paul said, tactfully avoiding answering the question.

"I'm taking that as a 'No,' what we are here to do is find information about the Geth attacks and who is behind them. Simple enough?" Came the rough reply.

Paul said nothing as brought out his rifle. He had gotten an upgrade from the Normandy, he changed his Javelin, which he liked for its armor piercing, for a Widow Anti-Material Rifle, the same as a certain Turian that was on the ship before. "Let's get going then." Paul said, his voice sounding bored at this little trip.

And so they walked, Tali, Shepard, Paul, Liara, walked. Collecting a lot of stares from the population of the colony, they continued to the center.

"I want everyone to spread out from here, look for any suspicious buildings, rundown, well decorated. Whoever's doing this has thought it through carefully. They either want to get caught, or they don't, in both cases, their base will be hidden." Shepard told everyone. It didn't make sense to Paul, if someone was trying to be discreet, they would get a normal house so not to draw attention, but one does not simply argue with Shepard.

And so they spread out, searching out decrepit and superb buildings and adding them to their map. Thankfully, the colony was small compared to others, but it still took a full hour to wander its streets looking at all the homes. So when they finally met again and synched their maps, there was over 50 different buildings.

"This is gonna take a while." Paul said dejectedly, all excitement of the mission evaporated a long time ago.

"No-one said it would be fun, but we got to do it." Liara said, probably feeling bad for not talking this entire time. To her credit though, there was very little in the way of ice breakers.

"Best get started then. Want to play a game?" Paul asked as Liara looked down, visibly dreading the game that would surly follow.

**ONE HOUR AND SEVENTEN MINUTES LATER**

"Something beginning with 'B'" Paul said, playing the 17th round of I-Spy

"Buildings" Liara said instantly, sounding bored, looking even worse.

"Yup. Your turn." Paul said, smiling at her discomfort.

"I don't want to play again, it's a pointless game that goes on forever, so I would always win." Liara protested.

"So prove it" Paul retorted as they walked past a corner to the next building on their list.

"Fine. G" Liara said, finally giving in. Paul looked around for something beginning with the letter G.

Nothing.

"I don't know, there's nothing that starts with G." Paul said, oblivious to Liara's twinkling eyes. "What is it?" Paul asked after waiting for Liara to give him the answer.

"Git." Liara said, stopping abruptly. "Did you see that?" She asked.

"No, that's kind of why I gave in."

"No, you moron, there." Liara pointed in front of them. Sure enough, they were being watched.

"That's new" Paul commented thinking about the other buildings they visited. They only saw a few Quarians, but never any that tried so hard not to be seen. "G"

"What?" Liara asked completely confused by the human's sudden diversion back to the game.

"Something that begins with 'G'. Do you see it?" He asked again

"Can I have a clue?" She asked, honestly not knowing the answer.

"Okay. It's Geth." Paul said, pointing to the new additions. At least ten Geth were being herded out of the house further up the road. All in formation, surrounded by Quarian soldiers. Paul quickly brought up his Omni-tool and took a picture. Liara meanwhile messaged Shepard.

_Shepard,  
Just seen Geth being marched out of a house. Sending you the co-ords. Might be main base. Following them now.  
Liara + Paul._

She changed the last bit to 'and' instead of a plus. Didn't want to make it seem like a couple. Suddenly a cockerel screeched nearby, startling Liara. She hit 'send' and followed after Paul who was already following the procession.

Shepard had replied very quickly after the message was sent to him in the first place.

_Liara + Paul  
Did you actively look for them as we agreed, or did you just go back to the pod for some private time with Paul? _

_And yes, I know the answer. :D  
Shepard + Tali.  
P.S: take that frown off your face.  
P.P.S: Tali is currently Rolling on the floor laughing… Literally. We need an acronym for that._

Liara instantly face-palmed at the stupidity of Shepard's humour and sighed at his ignorance while deleting said message before Paul could even get to see it, she knew she had feelings for him but would not express them until further notice, after all he is a mercenary that tried to hunt her down for information and almost let her get killed! She pushed those thoughts to the back of her mind and carried on with the mission at hand. They followed the Geth for what seemed like hours but can't be any more than a single hour. When the Geth were at their final location, Paul saw another hundred Geth at least. The Quarians are making an army.

Marking the location of the army, they returned to Shepard outside of the house from which the Geth seemed to be created. It took them no more than fifteen minutes to return, no tat stealth and a guide were unnecessary.

"Weapon's out. We're storming the house." Shepard said when everyone was gathered in front of the house. "They're producing Geth, but these are different. We need to find out why they are doing this."

Paul raised a hand. "How do you know the Geth are different?" Paul asked, seeing no possible way that Shepard could know that.

"_I _don't, Tali however, is our Geth expert, and I'm deferring to her opinion on this matter." Eyeing Paul down, as if he knew that Paul was getting ready to whip Shepard like Tali has done. A metaphorical whip, of course. He hoped.

Everyone had their weapons out within seconds, years of practice taking over for them. Then they stand against the door, the classic "breach and clear" procedure. Shepard opened the door, and Paul lobbed a flash bang into the next room.

The battle had begun.


End file.
